Hey folks, Harry here with our third installment of Mouth's Rich Stuff culled from the world of really indie INDIES!!! Once again it sounds like some wonderful stuff here. Mouth has seemingly developed 6 sets of eyes and ears... he sits in the triangulated center of 3 television sets turned on 24 hours a day... 8 days a week. Again... here's the madman with all the stuff you need to know!!!

MOUTH SPEAKS about: Masterplan, Chuck, and Vigilance

Major Jerk Alert! Mouth here with some tasty rich stuff. I know these are especially tasty because I've been mulling over these for a little bit longer than usual, holding them inside my huge jaws, under my thick rolling tongue, sucking the juice out of them for all they're worth. And little morsels are sweet and sour and good all over. Just the kind of independent films I know you constant readers out there in aint-it-cool-land want to hear about. They are all shorts this time, and I want to mention...when you are just starting out...and even if you're not...DON'T FEAR THE SHORT FILM!! I'm not going to get on my soapbox about this just yet, because I want to get on with the review...I'm even going to postpone my regular plea for more films until the end. (So don't say I never gave you anything...)

Masterplan is a seven and a half minute short film coming to us from Bandaloop Films, Produced by Janet Stone and Directed by Cory Goodman.

Masterplan is a Masterstroke.

I'll mention right off, that I'm not an incredibly religious person, but Masterplan is a film about Jesus. That's right, you read my Mouth correctly- it's about Jesus. Having said that, I don't know how you readers feel about Jesus...love him, hate him, or just don't believe in him, I think you will enjoy Masterplan. It examines one of Jesus' biggest problems...Boredom. If you are Jesus, what do you do? All day long, every single day, up in Heaven, what do you do? Give, give, give...that's your job, right? Well, Masterplan examines the type of thing Jesus does for himself every once and a while.

Regardless of how you feel about Jesus, I'm sure you have had the particular phenomenon of the very bad night. This is what our main (other than Jesus) character, Alex, played by Jerry Goble, has just gone through...and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. His girlfriend is leaving him for a job in New York, the steering wheel practically jerks out of his hands, wrecking his car, his wallet has magically diseappeared, and he can't get a hold of any of his friends via the telephone, and through the course of the film, he gets turned down for help by everyone at the small diner he winds up in.

Then he finds Jesus.

Literally, he finds Jesus...sitting at the end of the bar, eating a Cheeseburger.

So he tells him about his night, and everything he has been through, and all the pain he is in right now because of his girlfriend leaving him. Then Jesus explains that he understands..."look what all I've been through for people, and STILL church attendance is down?"

I don't want to give any more away about MASTERPLAN, because I really hope you will be able to see it. It's funny, somewhat controversial in nature because it deals with religion, and man's interpretation of something considered "holy." But if you think you might be offended by this film, please don't think that until you see it for yourself. It deals with Jesus in a very reverent manner, and shows one of the many different "mysterious ways" that the Lord may just happen to work in.

Masterplan has placed as a finalist at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Tahoe International Film Festival, and the Arizona International Film Festival.

A note from Janet Stone, the Producer: "It's best viewed late night, post-party, maybe even after you've had a few and then a few more."

A note back: Late night was sufficient. I Really enjoyed it without the benefit of a few. I'll watch it that way next time, though...gotta fill my big fat mouth up somehow....

Janet Stone of Bandaloop Films can be reached at Stone 22@gateway.net.

Chuck is the type of film that will really catch your attention. The second time I watched it, I played it a large party that my friends and I were having at the Goondocks. As soon as I pressed PLAY, random people that were walking through the house casually stopped to watch. About five minutes into its 15, I had gathered a small group of about 10 viewers, without saying a word. This was shortly before a few guests complained to one of the other hosts that "what they're watching is way too creepy for us," and could that guy "please turn it off or something." The funny thing was that the complaints came from OUTSIDE the house.

This stresses something about Chuck that I really loved...the sound. The sound mix of this film is really what gets you and pulls you in, I think more than anything. Created by Alex Turner, Chuck is about a 60's era door to door salesman, his obsessions, and his overwhelming desire to "close a deal."

Another thing I really like Chuck is it's ability to present a frame that really is very unsettling without doing "something weird" with the camera. Some try to make up for lack of ability to frame a shot properly or lack of ability to set mood properly by always putting the camera at some oblique angle all the time or always having it shake throughout the film, or have every other shot blurry or something like that. I can't stand that sort of thing. Chuck never does that, because it never has to...it is unsettling and scary and never has to pull any cheap punches to get the point across. It possibly paints the most believable portrayal of madness I have seen since Ed Norton in "Primal Fear." Chuck is right up there with the classic crazies...I really look forward to more films by Alex Turner, if this is the sort of character he can craft.

Check out AlexTurner.Com or email Alex@AlexTurner.Com...perhaps if we get Alex picked up somewhere, we can see the other characters he's got lurking in the dark parts of his mind...I know I want to see them!

Last but certainly not least, is VIGILANCE.

Remember my absolutely raving review a few weeks back that spoke about Roy Unger's film, REQUIEM?

Well, I recieved Vigilance soon after, along with some press material about the film..and I discovered that Roy Unger is the Director of Photography for Vigilance, and I Popped it into the VCR as soon as I could. Written, Produced, and Directed by Daniel Lawrence, Vigilance is an 8 minute, 40 second film about one man's deliberation on death.

What if you could catch Death, sneaking in to take someone you love late one night? Could you stop him if you were vigilant enough? Would even the briefest of distractions be sufficient for death to take advantage of, and slip by you, acheiving his goal and taking the one you've been guarding?

This is what the unnamed character, played by Rod Havrick Altschul, in Vigilance plans on doing. His father is in the next room, waiting to die. Rod's character wants to abort the plans of said Grim Reaper, by keeping an ever vigilant watch.

Dark and crisp, the visuals in Vigilance are such an incredible mood setter. There isn't any back-and-forth dialogue between Rod and any other characters, so the visuals and the occasional inner monolugue spoken to the camera have to create everything. And they do so, incredibly well. Frightening and stark, this film reminded me of when I was a child running for the bathroom in the middle of the night, scared of the dark and afraid something is going to reach out and get me, either from under the living room piano, or behind a bookshelf.

Daniel Lawrence can be reached at mrarkadin@aol.com, say, if you are looking to screen Vigilance at a film festival you are putting together, or even better, want to contact him in regards to a film deal!

Well that's all of the reviews this time around, my fellow indie film Goonies.

Something I do have to continue upon that I mentioned above, is if you are interested in making a film, please don't leave out the idea of a short film. There are so many advantages. It's easier to get people to screen it at a festival, for one. For another it gives you a chance to really polish what you plan on putting on the screen to basically sell yourself with. Not sell as in for money, necessarily, but the idea of you. What you want people to think of NEXT time they hear your name.

Because of the five minute "Requiem" for example...every time I hear Roy Unger's name, I'll think of that short film, and want to see what the next project is. So that's my advice this time around, folks!

Snail Mail, Fedex, UPS, or horsecart those films to: